MFS - The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Japan 5.3 ; Fiji  5.2 - 5.1!More info here.

• The Right to Bear Arms: Over 10,800,000 Guns Sold in the USA in 2011.(SHTF).The United Nations may think they’re weapons of mass destruction, but Americans seem to disagree.2011 was yet another record breaking year for gun sales, with Americans purchasing some 10.8 million firearms, a 14% increase over the previous year and up over 50% from ten years ago as reported by the National Shooting Sports Foundation:Many indicators, including a record-setting 2011, show the firearms industry continues to thrive in a down economy and that the potential exists for another strong sales year in 2012, reports the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry. Indicators such as background-check statistics, firearms production and importation, firearm-retailer surveys and on-the-ground reports from retailers nationwide reveal that interest in firearm ownership is high. “More and more Americans are choosing to exercise their Second Amendment rights, and they are doing so in a safe and responsible manner,” said NSSF President and CEO Steve Sanetti.One of the best indicators of firearms sales is the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System, which federally licensed firearm retailers use to conduct the mandatory background check on purchasers of new and used firearms. NSSF downwardly adjusts the NICS data by subtracting checks related to non-purchasing activity, such as checks for concealed carry permits, in order to gain a more accurate picture of market activity.December marked an unprecedented 19th straight month of background check increases when compared to the same period in the previous year.Why are more Americans choosing to own firearms? Reasons range from citizens’ increased awareness of the Second Amendment protecting the individual right to own firearms that was reaffirmed in two recent Supreme Court decisions, to increased interest in personal and home protection that may be due to economic uncertainty, to increased interest in the shooting sports and hunting.Politics has played a role, too, with a surge in firearms sale beginning in October 2008, in part because supporters of the Second Amendment feared the election of less gun-friendly candidates, including Barack Obama, and new, restrictive gun laws they might advocate. Though such legislation has not happened, industry professionals at the SHOT Show believe a similar reaction this election year is possible that could ignite another surge in firearm sales.Related to the topic of gun sales is the public’s changing attitude toward ownership. A recent Gallop poll showed a record lack of support for gun control, with only 26 percent of Americans favoring a ban on the possession of handguns. When Gallup first asked Americans this question some 50 years ago, 60 percent favored banning handguns.As sales climb, recent FBI data shows violent crime continuing to fall in the United States, with homicides dropping out of the top 15 causes of death in the country. The statistics undermine a favorite argument of anti-gun groups that “more guns equal more crime.”“These statistics vividly demonstrate that the lawful possession and use of firearms by law-abiding Americans does not cause crime,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. “There have never been more firearms in civilian possession in the history of the United States, and crime, including homicide, continues to decline throughout the country.”According to Ammoland, more guns were purchased last year in the United States than than there are active duty military members in the world’s fourteen largest armies combined.Japanese Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was once quoted during World War II as saying, ”you cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.“Enemies of the people of the United States and our Constitution should take heed. We’ve got guns. Lots of them, so just back off.Read the full story here.

• Supreme Court: Warrantless GPS Tracking Is Unconstitutional.(Gizmodo).The Supreme Court just shut down a major tech controversy: police planting a GPS bug without your knowledge or the approval of a judge. By a unanimous decision, the court said such warrantless tracking is illegal. This is big. The case originated with a Maryland drug dealer whose car was nailed with a GPS tracker—and installed after the ten day window originally permitted by a warrant. Before he was caught, the dealer's coordinates were relayed to police for almost a month, without any judicial oversight. The Obama White House had previously claimed this was fair game, as driving your car on public roads in plain view abandons any expectation of privacy.Not so fast, says the Supreme Court:  The Fourth Amendment protects the "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." Here, the Government's physical intrusion on an "effect" for the purpose of obtaining information constitutes a "search." This type of encroachment on an area enumerated in the Amendment would have been considered a search within the meaning of the Amendment at the time it was adopted.Here, physical contact means "putting a GPS device on your car"—and under the law, has the same weight as the police kicking down your door. A physical search—something cops can't generally do unless a judge says so.Read the full story here.

• Why High Tech Manufacturing Jobs Aren’t Coming Back to the U.S.(NYT).Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”“The entire supply chain is in China now,” said another former high-ranking Apple executive. “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.In China, it took 15 days.Read the full story here.

• Sahit Muja: Obama's rejection to build Keystone oil pipeline proof his failures to fix US economy.(Businessweek).President Barack Obama denied a permit to build Keystone XL oil pipeline . TransCanada said the 1,661-mile (2,673-kilometer) project would carry 700,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico, crossing six U.S. states and creating 20,000 jobs. “I’m disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my administration’s commitment to American-made energy,” Obama said in a statement. “We will continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase our energy security.” This President has made it plain that he favors higher oil and gas prices in a misguided effort to create an artificial market for "environmentally friendly" energy sources. This pipeline decision is consistent with his anti-capitalism ideology and his goal of a government controlled economy. Unfortunately it is not consistent with increasing employment and building a healthy economy.Under President Obama leadership U.S. will continue to purchase overpriced oil from the robber baron sheiks of the Middle East, who will use that money to continue to fund terrorism.Obama has been lying for 3 years now that his first priority is job creation. Here he has at least 20,000 actual shovel-ready jobs right there before him, but he is cowed by his big green financiers into scuttling the project.In truth, job creation is not even in Obama's top ten priorities. President Obama has to finish up his failing pet social engineering projects first and then, if there's time, he will see what he do about jobs.Apparently the only jobs the president likes are those that are sponsored by union organizations licking his boots.President Obama has absolutely no idea how to fix our economy.Sahit Muja - President and CEO - Albanian Minerals -New York.Read the full story here.

• Destroying America by Denying Access to Energy.(Aim)By Alan Caruba. It is the crime of the century that America, home to some of the world’s greatest reserves of coal, natural gas and oil, is being deliberately destroyed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior as they do everything in their power to restrict access and drive energy producers out ofbusiness.It is common sense that a nation that cannot produce sufficient electricity to turn on its lights and power its manufacturing sector will be destroyed if current Obama administration regulations and actions continue. Our vital transportation sector and all others that utilize petroleum-based products will suffer, too.While President Obama babbles about millionaires and billionaires, everyone will be impoverished by the loss of jobs and revenue our energy sector produces now and can produce in the future.This isn’t an “energy policy.” It’s a “no-energy policy” and it is a guarantee of economic disaster.In early January, Ken Salazar, the Secretary of the Interior, announced a new 20-year, million-acre ban on uranium mining for federal lands in Arizona, despite the fact that these lands hold the highest-grade of known uranium deposits in the United States. It is an outrage that a new GOP-Congress will have to overturn if the nation is to be assured of sufficient uranium to power its nuclear plants and for weapons development. If the ban remains, these uranium resources would be inaccessible until 2023!Tom Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research said that Salazar’s announcement “further compounds a man-made energy crisis that has been planned and executed in Washington, D.C.”At the same time we are learning of enormous natural gas discoveries that can reduce our energy bills and turn sleeping little towns into boomtowns, environmental organizations have launched a vast propaganda campaign against “fracking”, a technology that has been safely used for more than fifty years. Their claims about dangers to the nation’s supply of fresh water are baseless. Their claims that fracking has caused earthquakes in Ohio are absurd.Need it be said that the Environmental Protection Agency has turned its eyes on fracking and is working on a report due later this year that will likely call for harsh crackdowns on its use and more regulations to throttle the expansion of natural gas extraction?Americans and the nation’s future are being victimized by Obama administration policies. The 18th annual Index of Economic Freedom, was released on January 12th by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, measures the many factors that contribute to the economic health of a nation—things like property rights, regulatory efficiency, open markets, free trade and labor policies.Economic freedom is declining worldwide as governments try to spend their way out of the global recession. The United States fell to 10th place. In 2009 it ranked 6th, in 2010 it was 8th, and in 2011, it was 9th.We are witnessing the deliberate murder of a superpower.Read the full story here.

• Is There a Single U.S. Mainstream News Story About the Mass Burial of 30 People Outside Chicago Last Wednesday? (Cryptogon - Dailymail).It’s a practice more closely associated with third world countries, but in bleak times in a Chicago-area suburb, 30 people were buried in a mass grave on Wednesday.The pauper’s burial section at Homewood Memorial Gardens was established for those who could not afford to pay for a burial plot.And it is a problem that’s sweeping America as tough economic times have led to an increase in the number of indigent burials the morgue must perform.No mourners were present for the burial at the cemetery, which lies 25 miles south west of Chicago.The gruesome discovery of the pauper's burial section at Homewood was made last year, sparking a call for more strict federal regulations for cemeteries.Sheriff's officials had found caskets stacked on top of one another - some buried eight at a time - at Homewood. And the morgue has been accused of missing markers and poor record keeping.But coroners have said the practice is shared in other cities and states across the U.S. Tony Cox, the legislative chairman and former president of the Illinois Coroners and Medical Examiners Association, earlier told the Chicago Sun Times other cities, including New York, follow similar mass burial procedures for those with limited options. New York City Department of Corrections spokesman Stephen Morello referred to a burial site in Hart Island, New York, where 800,000 bodies lie.Officials there, he said, follow the same procedure - stacking coffins with inmates' remains three deep. Mr Morello said stillborn babies and children are always buried in individual caskets. Those, too, are stacked on top of one another.Read and see the full story here and here.

• Former Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Chris Dodd now MPAA Head Calls for Meeting Between Hollywood, Tech Giants to Reach SOPA Compromise.(HR)Former Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Chris Dodd, is now the head of the Motion Picture Association of America.MPAA head Chris Dodd would welcome a summit meeting between Internet companies and content companies, maybe convened by the White House, to look for a compromise on the much-discussed anti-piracy bill known as the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA.“The perfect place to do it is a block away from here,” Dodd told the New York Times, pointing from his office in Washington to the nearby White House, the paper said.A Senate vote on Tuesday will show whether opponents have succeeded in derailing that chamber’s version of the anti-piracy legislation, the Times said. The prime mover and shaker behind SOPA and PIPA and how it might benefit his global elite banking buddies if they aren’t cut out of financial transactions between little people via the peer-to-peer digital currency of the future.Hmmmm.......Do i hear Presidential executive power in the distance?Read the full story here.HT:LogisticsMonster.

• Senate bill upgrades illegal Internet streaming to a felony.(RT).Individuals who live stream content over the Internet illegally would face up to five years in prison under provisions in a new Senate bill that would make illegally streaming copyrighted material a felony.Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Cornyn and Christopher Coons have proposed legislation to upgrade the laws to classify live streaming as content distribution, which would violate copyright laws and make the offense a felony. Distributing copyrighted materials is already felony, but a number of legal questions have questioned whether live streaming violated the laws.Many argue that live streaming is a public performance rather than illegal distribution. This debate has sparked legal questions. The Senate bill would curtail the debate by specifying that live streaming is distribution and therefore a felony violate of copyright law. The bill should not come as a surprise however. Over two months ago the White House requested that Congress draft legislation to end the dispute over live streaming and classify it as a felony. The request from the White House's Office of the US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator further called on Congress to ensure legislation also made it possible for law enforcement officials to wiretap suspected live streamers who violate the law. The report asked Congress “to ensure that [the Department of Justice] and U.S. law enforcement agencies are able to effectively combat infringement involving new technology.”The new bill abides by the White House’s requests. Under the proposed legislation live streaming more than 10 copyrighted items in any 180-day period where the total retail value could top $2,500 or the licensing costs would have topped $5,000 would be classified as felony copyright infringement.Opponents to the legislation see the shift in policy as an example of the government bending to corporate interests and cracking down on the free flow of information online.Hmmmmm.......Goebbels smiling from Hell?Read the full story here.

• Obama Okays Gulf Oil Storage For Brazil.(SL).Washington/Houston (Reuters) – The U.S. Interior Department said on Thursday it gave final approval for Petrobras to use the first ever deepwater floating production storage facility in the Gulf of Mexico.The facility will be used when the company begins oil and natural gas production at its Chinook-Cascade project in the near future, the department said. Petrobras is based in Brazil.So a Brazilian company that is already profiting from Mr. Obama’s (illegal) oil drilling moratorium is going to profit some more from their work in the Gulf.And, lest we forget, Petrobras has enjoyed a very cozy relationship with Obama supporter George Soros. And, oddly enough, the US is reported to be backing loans to Petrobras for off shore drilling, as well.A Petrobras official who asked not to be identified told Reuters that production would begin in May.Why not a little earlier, say on the one year anniversary of the BP spill itself?The floating facility has a daily production capacity of 80,000 barrels of oil and 16 million cubic feet of gas. It can be disconnected and moved out of the path of a storm, unlike permanently moored production platforms, preventing long-term supply disruptions because of storms."These regulatory approvals pave the way for safe, new production of oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Mexico," said Michael Bromwich, who heads the department’s agency that oversees offshore drilling.So there is no risk to the environment if they leak. Which, of course, could never happen. (Lest we forget, there was no storm involved in the BP leak.)Apparently, Brazilian drilled oil is good for the environment. Unlike oil drilled by companies the US might profit from.Read the full story here.

• India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone -- Will Transact With Iran In Rupees.(ZeroHedge).Two weeks ago we wrote a post that should have made it all too clear that while the US and Europe continue to pretend that all is well, and they are, somehow, solvent, Asia has been smelling the coffee.To wit: "For anyone wondering how the abandonment of the dollar reserve status would look like we have a Hollow Men reference: not with a bang, but a whimper...Or in this case a whole series of bilateral agreements that quietly seeks to remove the US currency as an intermediate.Such as these: "World's Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade", "China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade", "China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System", "India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement", and now this: "Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says."" Today we add the latest country to join the Asian dollar exclusion zone: "India and Iran have agreed to settle some of their $12 billion annual oil trade in rupees, a government source said on Friday, resorting to the restricted currency after more than a year of payment problems in the face of fresh, tougher U.S. sanctions."To summarize: Japan, China, Russia, India and Iran: the countries which together account for the bulk of the world's productivity and combined are among the biggest explorers and producers of energy.And now they all have partial bilateral arrangements, and all of which will very likely expand their bilateral arrangements to multilateral, courtesy of Obama's foreign relations stance which by pushing the countries into a corner has forced them to find alternative, USD-exclusive, arrangements.But yes, aside from all of the above, the dollar still is the reserve currency... if only in which to make calculations of how many imaginary money one pays in exchange for imaginary 'developed world' collateral.On India's induction into the dollar unluck club, from Reuters.An Indian delegation has been in Tehran this week discussing options for payment and the source said the decision to pay in rupees was made after a meeting there."The Central Bank of Iran will open an account with an Indian bank for receiving payment and settling its import," the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, said, adding the new system will start "soon".The source did not specify the name of the Indian bank. But other sources have said that Iran could open an account with India's UCO Bank as it does not have any interests in the United States.

Who's this India country anyway?

India, the world's fourth-largest oil consumer, relies on Iran for about 12 percent of its imports or 350,000-400,000 barrels per day (bpd) and is Tehran's second-biggest oil client after China. But Washington has snapped tighter financial sanctions on Iran and wants Asia, Tehran's biggest oil market, to cut imports in a bid to pressure the Islamic nation to rein in its nuclear ambitions, which it suspects are aimed at making weapons.

And, oh yes, we forgot Turkey -the (lately very pissed off) gateway to Europe.

Turkey and Iran said on Thursday they want to increase financial transfers and that work is underway to strengthen banking ties.

When the dollar fails, and currency are devalued, barter begins:

India Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar said this week that the Indian delegation to Iran would work around the U.S. sanctions to protect oil supplies and promote Indian exports.
The government source said Iran has agreed to step up imports from India which added up to some $2.7 billion in 2010/11 and including oilmeal, rice and tea.
"This will cushion them (Iran) to some extent from exchange rate volatility," the source said.Ironically, and as has been stated here many times before, by enacting the proposed sanctions and embargo, the US, but mostly Europe is doing nothing but shooting itself in the foot, as it opens up a brand new pathway of not only outright defiance, and thus political brownie points domestically for the likes of China, of the US, but it will allow the "Asian dollar exclusion zone" to buy even more crude, at cheaper prices, while in the process it is forced to build closer monetary relations with its neighboring countries, relations that rely less and less on the world's increasingly less relevant reserve currency.Asian support for U.S. sanctions is vital since the region buys more than half of Iran's daily crude exports. The European Union has agreed in principle to halting Iranian crude imports and could finalise the ban on Jan. 23.China, Iran's biggest crude customer, has rejected the U.S. sanctions as overstepping the mark and defended its extensive imports from the second-biggest oil producer in OPEC.Necessity may be the mother of all dollar-exclusive invention, but Obama is surely the father of necessity.Read the full story here.

• EU bans Iranian oil, Tehran responds with threats.(JPost).BRUSSELS/TEHRAN - The European Union banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development program.In Iran, one politician responded by renewing a threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, an oil exporting route vital to the global economy, and another said Tehran should cut off oil to the EU immediately.That might hurt Greece, Italy and other ailing economies which depend heavily on Iranian crude and, as a result, won as part of the EU agreement a grace period until July 1 before the embargo takes full effect.A day after a US aircraft carrier, accompanied by a flotilla that included French and British warships, made a symbolically loaded voyage into the Gulf in defiance of Iranian hostility, the widely expected EU sanctions move was likely to set off further bellicose rhetoric in an already tense region.Meeting in Brussels, foreign ministers from the 27-state EU, which as a bloc is Iran's second-biggest customer for crude after China, agreed to an immediate ban on all new contracts to import, purchase or transport Iranian crude oil and petroleum products. However, EU countries with existing contracts to buy oil and petroleum products can honor them up to July 1.EU officials said they also agreed to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank and ban trade in gold and other precious metals with the bank and state bodies.A member of Iran's influential Assembly of Experts, former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian, said Tehran should respond to the delayed-action EU sanctions by stopping sales to the bloc immediately, denying the Europeans time to arrange alternative supplies and damaging their economies with higher oil prices."The best way is to stop exporting oil ourselves before the end of this six months and before the implementation of the plan," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.He also reiterated that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel between the Gulf and open sea through which a third of all oil tanker traffic passes to importers around the world.Read the full story here.

• Boko Haram Kill Police DPO, Soldiers And 10 Others In Bauchi.(SR).Members of a suspected Boko Haram sect this morning killed about 13 people in various attacks targeted at police, soldiers, a hotel and a bank in Bauchi State.A source told SaharaReporters that a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) was among those killed in Tafawa Balewa LGA along with two lance corporals of the Nigerian Army killed at an army checkpoint in Katagun and about 10 unarmed civilians.

Some of the victims met their death in a police station and military checkpoint in Bununu District of Tafawa Balewa local government.

The state police command through its commissioner, Ikechukwu Aduba, confirmed the incident.He said about five suspects have been captured by the combined team of army and police men who engaged the attackers in an exchange of gunfire. 

The commissioner stated that the security team recovered a number of assembled bombs as well as other weapons.

Two churches –one of them an ECWA church-were attacked in Fadaman Mada and Railway Quarters in Bauchi Township early Sunday morning, but there was no loss of lives or injuries.Read the full story here.

• Canadian woman found unconsious and badly beaten in Mexico resort. (CNews).A young Canadian woman is undergoing treatment after being found beaten unconscious in a hotel in Mexico's Mazatlan resort region.Mexican federal police told CBC News on Sunday that the woman, reportedly in her 20s, was found lying in an elevator early Saturday.The police officer would not provide his own name, nor reveal details about the victim's age or identity. Mexican media reports that the woman was found at the Hotel Riu in Punta Cerritos and is said to be in serious condition.Police statements say another tourist was trying to enter the elevator and discovered the woman lying on the floor in a pool of blood, according to a noroeste.com report. Police believe the attack occurred at about 2 a.m., the website reported.Noroeste reports the woman is white with brown hair and a light complexion.Paramedics arrived at the hotel to perform CPR, Noroeste reported. She was rejected by two private clinics before being accepted as a patient at a hospital, where she is in serious condition, Noroeste reported.Investigators found blood in a hallway of the hotel and believe the woman was allegedly assaulted in a hotel room before being dragged to the elevator, the news outlet reported.Canadian officials in Mexico are aware of the beating and are providing assistance to the woman and her family."Our thoughts are with the badly injured Canadian and her family during this difficult time," Aliya Mawani, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, said in an e-mail."Our officials in Mexico are providing consular assistance to her and her family and are in contact with Mexican authorities."The weekend beating comes after three Canadians were killed in Mexico earlier this month.Read the full story here.

• Bibi, Gantz battle over next IAF chief.(YNet).The Air Force battle: One of the most important IDF appointments – that of Air Force commander - has reached the decision point, with a major battle taking place behind the scenes between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday. PM Netanyahu is believed to push for the appointment of his military secretary, Yochanan Locker, who is believed to support an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. However, Army Chief Gantz opposes the move and wants Planning Branch Head Amir Eshel, known for objecting to an Iran strike, to take the post.Notably, some senior army officials claim that the two candidates hold identical views on the Iran issue and have not yet been asked to present their stance. One way or another, it appears that the issue of a strike in Iran prompted the prime minister to interfere in the appointment.The battle over the next Air Force chief, which up to now was conducted behind the scenes, reached the Knesset's State Control Committee Sunday, where Army Chief Gantz presented a decisive stance regarding his right to name the next IAF commander. "Officers must not be appointed in contradiction to the army chief's view, and the Air Force commander is just like any other general," Gantz told the Committee, which discussed the State Comptroller's Report on IDF appointments. "That's why we have an army chief – he summons the candidates, and he is the one who provides the explanations. The army chief received the government's trust for running the military, and this is how it should be done."Read the full story here.

• Remember that Rashid Khalidi video? (IsraelMatzav).Remember that videotape of Barack Hussein Obama at Rashid Khalidi's going away party? You know, the one that the LA Times has locked up in a vault and refuses to release? Lauri Ragen writes that we all should be screaming from the rooftops that the networks should be spending their time finding the video instead of broadcasting prurient video interviews with the ex-wives of Republican candidates. For good measure, she also asks why the media is pushing for Republican tax returns and not for Obama's college transcript. The public will never understand that the Islamists taking over the Mideast are not moderate, will not promote democracy, are not friends of the United States, and wish the ultimate destruction of the West if the public reads and relies upon only The New York Times, L.A. Times, MSNBC, or similar tools of the left for its "news" and information. Americans will not understand the implications of four more years of a pro-Islamist president if they do not understand what Islamism is all about. And they will not know who is sitting in the White House making policy decisions based on personal biases if the media continues to promote Obama's agenda rather than investigate and report.So why is the videotape of such paramount importance? Simon quotes from an article published in the L.A.Times discussing the tape and its contents:

[A] young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, "then you will never see a day of peace."One speaker likened "Zionist settlers on the West Bank" to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been "blinded by ideology."

Furthermore, rumors abound regarding additional messages that may or may not have been openly shared at the dinner in Obama's presence. Ted Belman reported at Israpundit that he has a reliable source that "the audio tape clearly picks up the toast 'death to Israel'." Did Obama drink to the death of an American ally that he has been actively intimidating, browbeating, and dissing since he phoned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on his first day in office? Does Obama liken Israelis living in the West Bank to Osama bin Laden, whose death he claims as his greatest foreign policy accomplishment?Read the full story here.

• Egypt’s Grand Mufti criticized on stage at youth symposium.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: During the “National Unity and Citizenship” symposium, which was held Sunday evening at the National Youth Council in Cairo, an accusation was directed at the Grand Mufti by several attending youth.The young attendees accused Dr. Ali Gomaa of not allowing them the opportunity to converse with him, and of hogging and dominating the conversation.In addition, they criticized some of the cynical responses of the Mufti to their questions, and various fatwas he had issued which served the former regime.The Mufti said in reply that he had “not issued a single fatwa sanctioning an act forbidden by God” and that “if someone held something against him let them announce it.”He also asserted that a civil state would not come at odds with the application of Islamic law, and that he believes the victory of the Freedom and Justice Party in parliament is a clear indicator of the will of the people.He explained that “in Egypt, a civil state means a modern nationalist state that is compatible with Islamic provisions.”“I am a father to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis and all Egyptians, and am not biased for one over the other, because the mufti is like a judge,” he stressed.The Mufti clarified that there were five examples of Islamic rule amongst the Muslim nations – Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Somalia – and the choice of a model that would then be applied in Egypt was up to the Legislative Council.He concluded his speech by emphasizing that reading and educating oneself had become a necessity in the present time, saying, “Read and God will have mercy on you.”He also stressed that proper Islamic dress for a woman is one that was not form-fitting, loose, and was opaque.He finally declared that the Egyptian people, who greatly revered the Meccan Sunni doctrine, would not welcome the Shia doctrine into Egypt.Read the full story here.

• South Sudan says Khartoum seized oil worth $815 million.(Alarabiya).South Sudan President Salva Kiir accused Sudan on Monday of seizing $815 million worth of its crude oil in a row over how to share oil revenues between the former civil war foes. South Sudan seceded last July under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between north and south, but the two countries are locked in a row over sharing oil revenues.The new landlocked nation needs to use a northern pipeline and the port of Port Sudan to export the crude but has failed to reach an agreement with Khartoum over a transit fee, prompting Sudan to seize part of its oil as compensation.Juba said last week it was preparing to shut down its oil output, which officials had said was 350,000 barrels a day. “In total, the revenue that the government of Sudan has looted since December amounts to approximately $815 million,” Kiir told parliament in Juba.He accused Khartoum of having built a tie-in pipeline to divert 120,000 barrels per day of southern production flowing through the north.Officials in Khartoum could not immediately be reached for comment.Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said this month Khartoum would impose a fee since Juba had failed to pay any fee for using northern export facilities since its independence.“Given our history with the administration of President Bashir, we realize that unfortunately we must prepare for a disruption of revenue that could last many months,” Kiir said.Hmmmm......As i predicted it did not take long.Read the full story here.

• Dubai - Abu Dhabi teenage boy to be tried for kissing girls.(BM). A 15-year-old Abu Dhabi boy is being tried in a criminal court for sneaking into a house and kissing two teenage girls. According to local reports, the boy was discovered by the father and has been charged with illegally entering a home and molestation.The prosecution accused the unnamed boy of entering a house in the capital and molesting two girls but the he denied the charges, saying they let him in.“The boy confessed to entering the house and kissing the two girls,” the paper said. “But he told the judge that the let him in and that it was not the first time that he goes into that house and kiss them.”Local UAE residents, upon hearing the charges, were shocked that it was actually going to court.“What a waste of time for the court to even hear such a case. The boys and girls are young teenagers,” said one Dubai resident to Bikyamasr.com. “What do we expect, that they won’t try this? Now will he be sentenced and have his life ruined because he stole a kiss?”Read the full story here.

• Dubai - Saudi morality police bust “vice” ring, hold 10 women on prostitution.(BM).DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has reportedly busted a group of women accused of prostitution in the ultra-conservative gulf kingdom.According to the daily Sharq newspaper, the Islamic police arrested 10 Asian women for allegedly “practicing prostitution.” Among the arrested are four employees of a large hospital in the country.In the statement, published by the newspaper, the “Vice Committee” had reportedly “watched some of the girls for a few days before deciding to raid the apartment” in the Western city of Jeddah.A Commission undercover posing as a customer phoned the ring leader and told her he wanted a woman.“She asked him to come to the apartment and pick the girl he likes … once he was in, the other Commission members stormed the flat and arrested 10 Asian women,” Sharq said in its report.It said four of the those arrested are employees at a company managing a key government hospital in Jeddah, the country’s second largest city. The paper did not identify the defendants.Local sources told Bikyamasr.com that the “house” where the girls were staying was run by a member of the royal family and had, according to one local resident, “been visited by so many men on a regular basis.”The source added that “the girls were under basic slavery and were not allowed to leave the house even if they wanted to.”No men were reportedly arrested in the raid. The women could face the death penalty if convicted of prostitution.Read the full story here.

• Russia to Hand Over Nerpa Nuclear Submarine to India.(RN).Russia’s K-152 Nerpa nuclear-powered attack submarine will be handed over to the Indian Navy on Monday, a top official in the United Shipbuilding Corporation said.The ceremony will take place in the Far Eastern Primorye Territory. In line with the contract worth over $900 million, the Project 971 Shchuka-B (NATO: Akula II) class sub will be leased to India’s Navy for ten years. It will be recommissioned as the INS Chakra.India will become only the sixth operator of nuclear submarines in the world when it takes delivery of the Nerpa, after the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China, though it previously leased another Russian submarine which was then returned.Twenty sailors died on the Nerpa in 2008 after the vessel’s fire-suppression systems were accidentally triggered during sea trials, releasing toxic gases.Read the full story here.

• Egypt’s parliament has first session amid uncertainty.(BM).CAIRO: Across the barbed wire fence erected to block activists from accessing the street leading to Egypt’s Parliament building the stream of men dressed in suits can be seen in the distance entering the People’s Assembly on Monday morning. The men, all newly elected legislators are holding the first session of the country’s first post-revolution parliament.As security remains tight, police motioning onlookers to keep moving and ushering away a potential photograph from being taken, Egypt’s parliament has officially begun.Despite the elected members taking office on Monday, the country’s military junta remains the law of the land. MPs, observers and activists are still uncertain as to what actual power the new parliament will have.One MP, speaking to Bikyamasr.com as he entered the area, said he would push for a resolution of some kind that demands the military leave power immediately.“We are to be the rulers of this country, either now or soon because this is what we were elected for,” the MP told a group of reporters.First on the agenda Monday morning was electing a Speaker of Parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), with its 47 percent of all seats, is hopeful of installing their chief candidate, Saad al-Katatni, into the position.While it may be formalities in the first session, activists are concerned that the new government has no real power as the military maintains its grip on the country.“We fought for change, but all we have really changed right now is who is the dictator,” said Ahmed, a 27-year-old activist who had joined a group of anti-military protesters in a small demonstration within stones throw of the parliament building early on Monday. They were quickly pushed away by uniformed police, who told them they were not allowed to be in the area.“This is why we need mass protests on Wednesday to keep the pressure and demand the military leave power at once,” Ahmed told Bikyamasr.com.The first session of parliament was inaugurated two days before the one-year anniversary of the January 25 uprising’s first day. Activists have been voiceful in calling for large numbers of citizens to descend on central Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand that the military leave power immediately and to continue the revolution, which they argue has been hijacked by the conservative Islamic groups, including the FJP and the ultra-conservative al-Nour Party.“We are watching the new parliament, but it is made up of people who were not part of the revolution and continued to campaign even as people were being killed by the military and police. How can we trust them,” added Ahmed.Read the full story here.